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Sisters, 1974. Directed by Brian DePalma.
Margot Kidder, Charles Durning, Jennifer Salt.
The first of DePalma's signature thrillers turns the screws tight as reporter Salt sees a murder out her back window and tries to sort it out. Margot Kidder plays psychotic twins, now separated, who are the prime suspects--BUT...once you figure out what's going on with the twins, DePalma blindsides you with something else. Although he borrows from Rear Window for the set-up of the mystery, this is the least derivative thriller DePalma has ever made--there are no overt borrowings or echoings of themes that are the province of other directors here. It is also the least misogynistic of the directors thrillers. In terms of plot, this is tighter than anything else in the director's output, more because he doesn't care about plot in his later movies except as a framework for set pieces. This has some pretty good set pieces, particularly some nightmare sequences late in the movie, but it is the story itself that is the most flamboyant set piece on display and it's a pure, unadulterated mindfuck. One of the great horror movies of the Seventies (a decade not short of great horror movies), made on that grainy film stock one wishes today's directors would rediscover. Highly recommended. |